118
📚Oh, give thanks 📖 to the LORD,for he is good;
because his mercy continues on
forever.
2 📚Let Israel now say,
“His mercy continues on
forever”.
3 📚Let the house of Aaron now say,
“His mercy continues on
forever”.
4 📚Let those who fear the LORD
now say,
“His mercy continues on
forever”.
118:1-4 This is the last of the psalms of praise (starting with 113) which the Jews used to sing at their religious festivals, especially at the Passover. As some think, it may have been the hymn sung by Jesus and His disciples the night of their last Passover together (Matt 26:30). What psalm could have been better suited to the occasion? This is a psalm of victory over enemies, a song of the conqueror over all opposition. Though the events after the last Passover of Jesus for a little while looked like defeat, this state of affairs was only temporary. Jesus, despised and rejected by men, rose victoriously from the dead and became the great Cornerstone of the New Testament Church.
In this psalm the basis for the call to praise is God’s goodness and love. Though we are not of Israel’s or Aaron’s descendants, if we fear the Lord we are included in this invitation to praise. The God of the Bible is good. His nature is good, His plans are good, His motives are good, His acts are good. He alone is fully, perfectly, eternally good (Mark 10:18). He is a gracious God and will be eternally so (Eph 2:7). Never were His goodness and grace more clearly revealed than at the events surrounding the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.⚜
5 📚I called on the LORD
in my distress;
the LORD answered me,
and set me in
a spacious place.
6 📚The LORD is on my side;
I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
7 📚The LORD is with me among
those who help me,
therefore I will see my desire
fulfilled on those
who hate me.
118:6-7 Deut 31:6; 33:29; Josh 1:5; Heb 13:5-6. If God is with us, man can do nothing to us except what God permits. Why then should we fear frail men when the Almighty is our protector?⚜
8 📚It is better to trust
in the LORD than to
put confidence in man.
9 📚It is better to trust
in the LORD than to
put confidence in princes.
118:8-9 Men may deceive and fail us. God never will. Princes too are but men with all man’s failings. It is sad to see men neglecting the almighty refuge and unfailing help God gives and seeking the favor of men whose authority is only for a brief time on earth. Verse 8 is the central verse of the Bible; it also gives a central truth.⚜
10 📚All nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the LORD
I destroyed them.
11 📚They surrounded me;
yes, they came all
around me,
but in the name of the LORD
I destroyed them.
12 📚They surrounded me like bees;
they were quenched like fire
among thorns;
for in the name of the LORD
I destroyed them.
118:10-12 See Ps 3:6; 37:9; 88:17. The presence, the help, and the name of the Lord give great confidence (1 Sam 17:45-47; 2 Chron 14:11-12; 2 Chron 32:6-8).⚜
13 📚You pushed me violently
to make me fall;
but the LORD helped me.
118:13 If the Lord helped him why was he pushed back and about to fall? God knows how to test our faith, and when to come to our rescue.⚜
14 📚The LORD is my strength
and song,
and has become my salvation.
15 📚The sound of rejoicing
and salvation is
in the tents of the righteous.
The right hand of the LORD does
valiantly.
118:15 Eventually the righteous will gain full and perfect victory, and eternal joy shall be theirs.⚜
16 📚The right hand of the LORD
is exalted.
The right hand of the LORD
does valiantly.
17 📚I will not die, but live,
and declare the deeds of the LORD.
18 📚The LORD has chastened me
severely,
but he has not given me
over to death.
118:18 The attacks of enemies, his dangers and troubles have been God’s chastening to make him more trusting, more faithful, more holy (compare Jer 31:18; 1 Cor 11:32; Heb 12:5-11).⚜
19 📚Open to me the gates 📖 of righteousness.
I will go through them,
and I will praise the LORD.
20 📚This is the gate of the LORD,
through which the righteous enter.
118:19-20 The gates of righteousness are the only gates that open into the presence of the righteous God. He has made these gates to shut out all who persist in evil (compare Rev 21:25-27). To enter these gates we must first of all be clothed with Christ’s righteousness and justified by His blood. Then as God’s people if we want Him to hear our prayers and accept our worship we must have righteousness of life (Ps 15:1-5; 18:23-24; 66:18).⚜
21 📚I will praise you,
for you have heard me,
and have become my salvation.
118:21 Answered prayer should produce thankful hearts.⚜
22 📚The stone which
the builders rejected has
become the chief cornerstone.
23 📚This is the LORD’s doing.
It is marvellous in our eyes.
118:22-23 The Lord Jesus applied these verses to Himself. See Matt 21:42. See also Acts 4:10-11; 1 Pet 2:7; Eph 2:20; Isa 28:16. The “builders” of the Jewish society rejected the Lord Jesus (Matt 26:63-68; John 1:11; Isa 53:3), but He has become the cornerstone of God’s spiritual temple (Eph 2:19-22). God the Father took His despised and rejected Son and made Him the most important stone in His temple, the stone without which there would be no true building at all (the cornerstone is the stone with which the whole building is aligned). All this was the work of God and it should be marvelous in our eyes too.⚜
24 📚This is the day which
the LORD has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 📚Save now, I pray, O LORD.
O Lord, I pray, now send success.
118:25 In vs 23-27 the plural “we” appears. The author prays as the representative of all the people of God. We should not be content without increase, progress, success in our spiritual life and work.⚜
26 📚Blessed is he who
comes in the name of
the LORD.
We have blessed you from the house
of the LORD.
118:26 Matt 21:9; Luke 13:35; 19:38; John 5:43. Those who are in the house of the Lord (God’s presence) will praise Him (the Lord Jesus).⚜
27 📚God is the LORD,
and he has shown us light.
Bind the sacrifice with cords
to the horns of the altar 📖.
28 📚You are my God,
and I will praise you.
You are my God;
I will exalt you.
118:28 See Ps 33:12; 146:5; Deut 33:29. If the God of the Bible is our God how blessed we are and how thankful we should be. And if He is our God we have no business exalting ourselves. He alone must be the object of our praise.⚜
29 📚Oh, give thanks to the LORD,
for he is good;
for his mercy continues on forever.
118:29 We return here to v 1 with, it is to be hoped, a fuller understanding of God’s goodness and grace from the study of this psalm.⚜